Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation — 2003-08-01

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in July. Job losses persisted in manufacturing and a number of other industries. These declines were partly offset by employment gains in temporary help and other service- providing industries. Since January, payroll employment has decreased by 486,000. Over the month, the unemployment rate edged down to 6.2 percent. Manufacturing employment decreased by 71,000 in July, with job losses continuing to be widespread throughout the industry. The largest decline occurred in transportation equipment, where more auto workers than usual were off payrolls because of seasonal retooling. Other manufacturing industries with large over-the-month employment losses included computer and electronic products, fabricated metals, apparel, and textile mills. In addition to shedding jobs, many manufacturing industries cut hours in July.